Legendary celebrity photographer Terry O’Neill always wanted to be a jazz drummer. When he was 10 he made his own drum kit from cookie tins, and by the time he was 14 had quit school and was playing in jazz clubs with a local band. After a stint in the army, O’Neill thought he might get the chance to travel to the U.S. to play in clubs there if he worked as an airline steward. So he applied to what now is British Airways and was very surprised to be handed an Agfa Silette camera and told to take pictures of people around Heathrow airport.

Known as a master of combining art in the traditional sense with photography, Chiarenza has been making pictures for five decades. He started out with tightly framed, documentary-style photographs that sparked a lifelong interest in abstract images and landscapes. But since 1979 he has been making collages out of scraps of paper, foil, can lids, and whatever else he finds or people send him. He then photographed the collages with Polaroid positive/negative film, always in black and white. Using light, shapes, forms, and surfaces, the results are very unique images that encourage the viewer to let his or her imagination do all the interpretation.

Vincent van Gogh once said, “Stars are the souls of dead poets, but to become a star you have to die.” Vivian Maier (1926 - 2009) was an amateur photographer who had no desire to share her work with anyone during her life, and kept a treasure trove of over 100,000 prints, negatives, and films in five storage lockers in Chicago. By several twists of fate, they ended up in the hands of a few collectors who recognized their unique quality, and are now shown in books, documentaries, museums, and galleries throughout the world.

Actor Richard Gere is best known for his roles in over 40 films, but few may be aware he is also an avid photographer and collector. Taking pictures on his many trips to India was always more of a personal project, until photography book and exhibition designer Elizabeth Avedon happened to notice a 3-foot stack of beautiful 8x10 photos in his loft. “A lot of these photographs I didn’t show anyone because it was such a private experience for me,” Gere recalls. “I had no interest in sharing them.” Fortunately, Avedon was able to convince him they needed to be seen, and these and other photos have been exhibited around the world and published in his book, Pilgrim.

“Say it isn’t so!” exclaimed photographers all over the world when they heard the news about the end of Kodachrome film. Due to dwindling sales, Kodak made the difficult announcement they would no longer manufacture Kodachrome on June 22, 2009. The one remaining developer in the world, Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas, ceased processing the film early this year.

Is it possible to communicate through photography the energy as well as the quiet moments of rock ’n’ roll? These photos, selected by Graham Nash for the recent Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock ’n’ Roll Photographs exhibit at the George Eastman House, answer with a resounding “yes!” Nash, of The Hollies and Crosby, Stills and Nash fame, started taking pictures long before he became famous as a musician, and few may be aware of his talents as a curator, collector, and photographer.